Word: argument
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Perhaps it’s counterproductive to belabor animal suffering in the way that Foer does; those who eat meat often argue that it is irrelevant to apply the same morality we do to human suffering. Foer makes an excellent argument that for himself and much of his audience meat is nutritionally unnecessary and ecologically harmful, but using a moral argument to evince a change in people’s daily lives may be ineffective. Foer’s facts are visceral and damning for those who sympathize, but they may not be enough...
What lends “Eating Animals” its power, though, is neither its scope nor its journalistic merit. Rather, the importance of “Eating Animals” lies in the depth and nuance of Foer’s argument and in the portrait he sketches of animal agriculture as it stands today. Foer is occasionally shrill in his denunciation of factory farms, but his examination of animal welfare representatives—a vegan activist, several “ethical farmers” and a small slaughterhouse owner—is both more in-depth and more...
...Foer notes, culture is expressed in eating practices, and to change what we eat is to fundamentally change our identity. But change can also mean progress, and although diehard carnivores looking for reasons not to give up meat will find holes in Foer’s argument, it is more compelling and accessible than most arguments for vegetarianism. Even those who choose not to change their eating habits will come away from the book thinking more critically about their food, something that both vegetarians and omnivores should strive...
...manner of objection crude—his decision to tell his teacher to “go jump off a bridge,” for example, may not have been the most diplomatic way to deal with her attempts to make him say the Pledge. But the argument behind his protest was a sound one. Phillips demonstrated a remarkable level of political and social awareness well beyond his years in recognizing that equality and justice for all citizens has not yet been achieved in America...
...bench seemed to reflect this view, and several Justices suggested somewhat humorously that if the Bilski argument were to proceed, a number of other ludicrous patents could be issued. Justice Antonin Scalia asked if under Bilski's argument, methods of horse-training could be patented, while the court's newest member, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, asked if a "method of speed-dating" was patentable...